XMP Files - Why generated on RAW Import/Export

When you export a raw image 'as original', you will always get an XMP file, even if you did not change anything and even if you did not check the option to automatically write changes to XMP. The reason is that Lightroom always does something on import, and the XMP file contains the camera default settings that Lightroom applied. The renaming is also a change; the original name is stored in the XMP file.

Yes, I have enabled that and would like to keep that setting in place. My question is more about why an XMP is created when I havn't made any changes to a file. Why is the XMP created if there are no changes to it?

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The very second that you turn on the xmp within the metadata tab, the xmp files get created. The very second you import a brand new photo the xmp file gets created.

That xmp file contains everything that the database (the catalog) records related to the photo the xmp file is for. Everything.

In Lightroom Classic, in Your Catalog Settings, in the Metadata tab, you have probably enabled "Automatically write changes into XMP"

Every time you touch a image, the XMP file gets created, or changed.

 Import a photo, Bang XMP  gets created, a s keyword, XMP gets modified, change the white balance, on and on.

Now this XMP file is good for one thing, sharing Lightroom Classic edits along with the original photo wth an app that is XMP savvy. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/metadata-basics-actions.html

https://lightroomkillertips.com/writing-xmp-files-shouldnt/

Note: the above does not refer to xmp presets, that is a different issue, and the two do not relate.

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